The Friendship Files: (Ir)Regulars
by LanieSullivan
Summary: Stemwinder entry into my Lee/Francine friendship series to fill in the gap between Alexi's capture and the tag at Amanda's house. Book cover courtesy of Sarah Spencer.


Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. The plot is mine, but not the characters. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only. No infringement is intended.

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 **(Ir)regulars**

Sitting in the conference room, Francine watched Lee's every move while he was interrogated by Dr. Smyth and found herself thoroughly amazed by the fact that he hadn't lost his temper once. In fact, he hadn't even made a single smart-ass comment in response to any of the verbal potpourri Smyth hurled at him. She had to give him credit, he was doing better than she had when she'd endured her own version of it earlier in the day.

"And the King woman?" Smyth asked him.

"What about her," Lee's tone changed from the cool even one it had been to one of defensiveness.

 _There it is,_ Francine thought as she saw him glower at the director.

"What was her involvement in all of this?"

Lee nodded to the file on the table in front of their boss. "Look, you've got my report right there in front of you. Maybe you should put your reading glasses on and go through it again."

Smyth let out a dry chuckle and replied sardonically, "Don't need reading glasses. I have _perfect_ vision." He gave Lee a look that showed he knew more than he was letting on. "What I fail to see, however, is why a mother of two so willingly left her home and her children to follow you blindly, not knowing whether you were a traitor or not."

Lee shifted nervously. "She knew," he parried. "Because she knows me. She's my partner and has been for three years."

" _Partner_ , is it?" Smyth took a long drag from his ever-present cigarette. "A partner with no training, no skills of any use in the field and yet, you trusted her more than this agency."

"She _has_ skills!" Lee argued loudly.

"With all due respect, Sir," Francine interjected. "Amanda has had some training courses and while I admit that I didn't think much of her chances of survival when she first started here, she has thrown herself into every challenge that this agency has put in front of her and met every one of them head on."

"Indeed she has, Desmond. That's not in question. The question is what to do with her now." He glanced over to Billy. "Your two cents, Melrose?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, her actions here smack of disobedience and gross insubordination. She turned her back on the agency, followed Scarecrow, hid out with him, helped him, all the while ignoring agency protocol."

"But-" Lee began to protest, but Smyth silenced him with a wave of his hand.

Smyth pulled another file from the stack in front of him. "And according to her file, she's aced every exam she's ever taken on procedure, so she can't claim a lack of knowledge on these things."

"So, she followed her instincts, as she always does. As ANY good agent should do. What is your point?" Billy questioned. "In my book, she was just backing up her partner; a partner that I personally paired her with because I saw from the beginning how well they could work together. That's why I hired her in the first place. I thought they'd be good for each other."

"My point, Melrose, is precisely that. You've had her here under your direct supervision, under Scarecrow's wing and yet she's never moved forward within this agency. Her records here clearly indicate that she's not afraid to follow her instincts, as Desmond pointed out, not afraid to face new challenges, as you stated yourself, not afraid to back up her partner. And she clearly has the intelligence to counter complicated chess moves. In this case, she captured a queen named Sonja Chenko all on her own, helping to take down the king's defenses."

"Yes, she did," Lee smiled proudly, a look that was not lost on Francine, a look that also held...something else that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She didn't have much time to puzzle over it though because Dr. Smyth began speaking again.

"I'd say this particular pawn has successfully moved herself all the way across the chessboard and as such, it's time for her to be made a queen. I'm sure you'll see to it, Billy." Billy nodded. "Good. I want to start seeing her on the full-time duty roster, ASAP, 'k?"

With that, Smyth gathered his files. dropped one in front of Billy on his way out and left the room.

"How do you like that?" Lee commented, a broad grin spreading across his face, but shaking his head a little disbelievingly at Smyth's directive.

"Well, not a doubt in my mind that she's earned it," Billy stated proudly. "I think you should be the one to give her the news, Lee. You're her partner, after all." He gave the younger man a knowing look.

"I will," Lee beamed as he left the room, Francine hot on his heels while Billy stayed behind, looking over Dr. Smyth's notes. Lee sprinted for the exit doors, eager to tell Amanda the news.

"Hold it right there, Buddy," Francine's voice sounded sharply behind him.

Lee turned from the glass doors of the bullpen that he'd just been about to exit through and let out an annoyed sigh. "What?" After spending hours in the conference room under Dr. Smyth's intense scrutiny, all Lee wanted to do was get the hell out of there and on his way to see Amanda, so whatever it was, she'd better make it quick.

"What do you mean, what?" She gaped at him incredulously as she grasped his arm firmly and steered him back in the direction of Billy's office.

"Francine, what the hell are you doing?" He pulled his arm from her grasp and started to walk away, but she grabbed him again.

"Oh no, you don't," she said in a warning tone and she pushed him into the private office and closed the door behind them. "We need to have a serious talk...and I DO mean serious."

"Whatever it is, it'll have to wait, Francine. In case you hadn't noticed, it's been a rough couple of days and I'd like to get home."

"Uh-huh." She folded her arms across her chest disbelievingly. "And just _whose_ home were you going to?" she questioned.

"Mine," he answered huffily. "Who else's home would I be going to?"

"Oh, I don't know. I thought maybe you might be heading over to your new girlfriend's house."

 _So, that's what this is about._ "Look, Francine, I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have a new girlfriend and I haven't for a very long time or hadn't you noticed?"

"Okay, I admit that I have noticed that you haven't spent any time lately prowling the steno pool, but you know very well who I'm talking about." She wasn't going to let him wriggle his way out of this one, not when it could ruin everything. She was just really beginning to like Amanda and value having her around. She'd be damned if she'd take the chance that he'd run her off simply because he couldn't keep his overactive libido in check.

"No, Francine, I really don't," he denied as he folded his arms across his chest expectantly, matching her pose.

"Amanda?" she stated in exasperation as she dropped her arms. "And don't you try to deny it, Lee Stetson. I'm the one who did the investigating at your new little hangout. I interviewed the bartender myself. He called you two 'regulars.'"

"So, we like to grab a drink, maybe even a meal once in a while after work. What's the big deal?"

"Five times in two weeks? That's more than once in a while and the way he told it, he'd gotten to know even what you two order every time."

"We've been working a lot lately," Lee responded with a shrug. "That is, until we had half the agency after us, including you," he added pointedly.

"Okay, I admit that I didn't exactly jump on the bandwagon to defend you at first, but even you have to admit that you've been acting strangely lately."

"I haven't been acting any differently than any other time, Francine."

She rolled her eyes and snorted. "That's the way you're going to play it? Okay, fine. Let's start with how calm you were in there with Smyth until he brought Amanda into it."

"She didn't need to be dragged through the mud just for standing by her partner. You always talk about how highly trained you are, so maybe you remember that part of your training...you know, backing up your partner?"

"You make excuses lately to linger around the office when Amanda's in her training classes..."

"I'm responsible for her since I got her into this business," Lee countered. "I just want to make sure she's doing okay in her classes."

"How you've ignored every other woman in the building..."

"I'm not interested in any of them anymore."

"How you lied about your whereabouts and how you've been spending your evenings?"

"It's nobody's business HOW I spend my evenings but mine."

"True, but you've always shared that stuff with me _and_ you lied about it in your report to Billy. You've never done that before."

 _If you only knew,_ he thought. He wondered what she'd think if she knew just how many times he'd fudged details in reports lately to keep Amanda's name out of them. "Did you ever think that I lied to avoid this very thing?" he turned the tables on her. "I know my reputation, Francine. How do you think it would have looked if I'd included Amanda's name in that report, if I admitted that I was with her the night I first met Sonja? God knows there are enough rumors around this place without destroying her reputation too."

"Is that why you tried to wriggle out of this peacock dance with Sonja Chenko? Because Amanda would be involved? I mean, that's YOUR dance. You practically invented it."

"Which is why it's just not my thing anymore, Francine." He sighed and leaned against her desk.

"The Lisbon variation? Please," she mocked. "A relationship on the rocks, leaving one woman for another? That is completely your thing."

"Not anymore," he responded simply. "It's like I told Billy. It's a game for the younger guys. I'm getting too old to play those kind of games." Francine studied him for a moment, trying to discern if he genuinely meant that, but was startled by him snapping, "Look, where are you going with this?"

"The question is, where are _you_ going with this?"

"I don't follow."

"Don't play dumb, Lee. I'm better at it than you." When he raised an eyebrow and laughed, she added in an affronted tone, "You know what I mean. I know how to use the 'dumb blonde' routine to my advantage. That's MY thing."

"Well, you're anything but dumb, Francine."

"Which is why I've figured out what you're up to. You're pursuing Amanda to the exclusion of all else. What I can't figure out is why. What's your end game?"

"I don't have an end game," Lee shrugged noncommittally. He really did, but he wasn't about to tell Francine that. Amanda _was_ his end game, a life with her.

"Please!" she scoffed again. "Is it because she's the one woman in this place that you know you can't have? Is that the new challenge?"

"No, Francine. Not a challenge. There's nothing TO challenge." He smirked at her.

"What?"

"Well, thanks to you and the agency we did just spend several days on the run together, in hiding...alone...in a tiny little one-room place..." His voice was dripping with innuendo by the time he finished.

"That's why you're in such a hurry to get out of here, isn't it? You're going to see her again."

"Okay, yes. If you must know, I was going to head over to her house to let her know the outcome of the meeting. You were in the same meeting I was. It's like Billy said, she's my partner and he thought that she might like to know that Dr. Smyth offered her a promotion and that the news should come from me. She's earned it. She was incredible out there."

"Incredible, was she?" Francine questioned, her blue eyes dancing in amusement.

"Oh, get your mind out of the gutter," Lee barked, but couldn't help the slight flush that crept into his face when he thought about Amanda. He recovered quickly off her curious look and added, "Well, you said yourself that Norman called us regulars. I...um...I guess we are." He hoped to be a lot more than that and very soon. They'd wasted too much time already, but now that he knew that Amanda loved him, he couldn't stop the smile that crossed his face.

"That's exactly where I was going with it. Regulars." She shook her head. "I care about you as a friend, you know that, but you and Amanda...don't you think that's a little _ir_ regular? I mean, she's not exactly your type. For that matter, being regular isn't exactly your thing."

"Maybe that's exactly why it's the right thing. Maybe I've had it wrong all this time. Maybe all the women I thought were my type weren't and that's why none of my relationships ever lasted and maybe, just maybe, being regular is just what I need." He rose from his perch. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I was on my way to see a girl."

She watched him walk away with a spring in his step, happier than she'd seen him in a long time and muttered, "Lee and Amanda, regulars, huh? Oughtta call them irregulars." She wanted to have faith in her friend, just as she had wanted to have faith in him during the Stemwinder mess, but she couldn't help worrying and wondering just what would happen now that they were home again. _Why Amanda? Why was she the one to turn his head, of all people?_ She, herself, was different than the names in his black book, so why hadn't it been her? _You know why,_ an internal voice answered.

"Francine," Billy's booming voice sounded, breaking out of her reverie. "What are you still doing here?"

"Oh, I...um...I just..."

"Still worried?"

She shook her head at Billy's ability to read his agents' minds. "Just thinking about...things."

"They're gonna be fine, Francine," Billy pronounced with certainty.

"Maybe," she said doubtfully as she pondered Lee's comments about needing to be "regular" which was highly irregular for him. What had Amanda King done to him that had brought about such a change? Would it last? She let out a sigh, but couldn't help the concerns she had. Lee may think he needed "regular" now, but what would happen when he got bored with it one day?

"Francine?"

"I hope you're right, Billy."


End file.
